Police said officials at the Valley Street jail notified both Hillsborough and Manchester police about the alleged offer to pay a fellow inmate to kill Scognamiglio's girlfriend.

Police said Scognamiglio solicited Andrew Roy, a fellow inmate at the Valley Street jail, to commit the murder. The police affidavit supporting the arrest warrant is sealed, but according to the criminal complaint, Scognamiglio offered to pay Roy $5,000 to kill Pamela Meyer.

A warrant was issued after detectives from the Manchester Police domestic violence unit conducted further investigation.

In court Tuesday, police prosecutor Sgt. Stephen Reardon sought $500,000 cash-only bail for Scognamiglio, who was convicted in the Jan. 4, 1982, killing of Jose Rodriguez, who was shot in the back in an incident in Waterbury, Conn.

Although Scognamiglio was sentenced to 25 years in prison in 1983, Reardon noted that he was out of prison and convicted of burglary 10 years later, in 1993.

Reardon said Scognamiglio's conviction record dates back to 1974, when he was 20, and involves crimes in both Connecticut and New Hampshire. It began with an assault conviction in Somersworth and also includes resisting arrest, disorderly conduct, drug, aggravated driving while intoxicated, breach of bail, restraining order violation and fugitive convictions, said Reardon.

Although Scognamiglio has been held since his Oct. 27, 2013, arrest on the second-degree assault charge on $250,000 cash/surety bail, Reardon argued for the half-million-dollar cash-only bail on the new charge to protect the public and the victim.

He said, "Given the history of violence and propensity for same. . .(it is) not only reasonable but also necessary."

Reardon also sought bail conditions that include no contact with Meyer, staying at least 1,000 feet from her, not going outside New Hampshire and signing a waiver of extradition.

Public Defender Dorothy Graham told Judge John Coughlin that the defense reserves the right to argue bail at the probable cause hearing, which was set for Jan. 22.

Previous story follows:

MANCHESTER — A Hillsborough man is accused of trying to hire a fellow Valley Street inmate to kill his girlfriend.

.Ciro Scognamiglio, 59, formerly of 33 Union St. but who was being detained in the jail on a second-degree assault charge involving the same woman, is charged with criminal solicitation of murder...He has been in the jail, detained on $250,000 cash/surety bail, since his Oct. 27 arrest by Hillsborough police on the assault charge.

Scognamiglio was convicted in the Jan. 4, 1982, killing of Jose Rodriguez, who was shot in the back in an incident in Waterbury, Conn. Scognamiglio was sentenced to 25 years in prison...Scognamiglio is to be arraigned Tuesday morning in 9th Circuit Court, Manchester District Division, on the latest charge...An investigation was opened after jail officials contacted both Manchester and Hillsborough police to say they had information indicating Scognamiglio had offered money to a fellow inmate to kill his girlfriend, who lives in Hillsborough...Detectives assigned to the Manchester Police Domestic Violence Unit continued the investigation and as a result, obtained an arrest warrant for Scognamiglio charging him with criminal solicitation to murder...